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“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the things Seutin discovered when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, she pulls out threads of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the players on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates